Medical Applications of Additive Manufacturing – Application-Oriented Classification for Case Design and Documentation

Rapid development has recently occurred in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, some of which are called 3D Printing. One of driving force behind the development of AM is variation in both industrial and medical applications. Certain applications occur in clinical practice, with others under research or in a developmental phase. The application of these new technologies in medical settings has raised concerns among specialists regarding quality control of the manufacturing process, case documentation and patient safety. This thesis presents a novel classification system for medical applications of AM; the system is based on both own research cases and patient cases presented in the literature. Combining application classes and procedural phases of clinical patient cases into one representation was an objective of this work. The solution concerned the development of a medical application of additive manufacturing (MAAM) matrix case presentation.One research goal involved developing a model to support patient-case design, documentation, and learning. According to cognitive psychologists, knowledge is clustered into packets that enable knowledge to be organised, stored and contextually placed. Matrix-based representation aims to help stakeholders understand MAAM cases as packets. The presented concept uses matrix cells to store actual case data. Such data presentation technology has potential to serve as the basis for further developments related to feature-based product modelling and expert system technologies in medical applications of AM. This thesis presents a MAAM matrix system with potential application as a qualified standard platform for medical-case design and documentation. The MAAM matrix system supports learning and is an established operational platform for computerised systems. This thesis demonstrates the validation of the MAAM matrix system in an orbital wall implant clinical case. The second validation case was a research case studying the effects of both applied AM system technology and finishing technology to part cytotoxicity. Both cases involved storing materials and methods data in MAAM matrix cells.